a pandemic has struck Equestria, and foul play is suspected
A sickness that has never been seen by anyone in Equestria has suddenly surfaced. Twilight races to find a cure as her friends are infected by it. She must leave her task to Rainbow Dash as she herself falls prey of the plague. A mass extinction is inevitable if they fail their quest.
Rainbow Dash dodged a hurtling shard of rock as she raced towards her target. Her left wing still seethed with pain from earlier and she was in no condition to fly. But she had to. She couldn’t give up. Not when she was this close. Two more sharpened rocks flew past her at blistering speeds but Dash kept her eyes trained on the urn. She could hear the beasts clearly behind her and felt one snap at her left rear hoof. It was inches away from ripping her limb from limb. The visage at the end of her path continued to break apart the caves stalagmites and send them straight at her. She was within a few hundred yards of her target when she felt something razor sharp pierce her leg.
Pinkie Pie coughed violently. Her normal playful and not quite sane personality had vanished. She lay under four blankets yet her teeth still chattered from time to time. She was almost white with a slightly pink hue to her coat. She had lost consciousness nearly four hours prior.
She was number 97; 97 cases of a mysterious and unidentifiable disease that randomly appeared the day before. Numbers 1 through 13 and number 82 were already dead. Twilight stood at Pinkie’s bedside wearing a protective mask over her muzzle to keep from getting infected. She was leafing through yet another book on mass plagues with no success. Every now and then She would look up at pinkie and study her symptoms and appearance, then she would dive back into the book frantically each time feeling a bit more helpless.
The world seemed to be ending. New cases were constantly being found and with each passing moment less and less of the population of Ponyville dared to go outside. Many families holed up in their homes with what little supplies they could manage to arrange. Others would try to find a spot that was not contaminated yet and hunker down to wait it out. The apocalypse was upon them and it grew worse each second.
“No no no that doesn’t produce a fever……maybe this one?....but it says nothing of coughing!” Twilight muttered to herself as she worked to keep herself sane. One of her best friends was going to die in front of her and none of her precious books could help. Case 100 passed through the door a moment later, a pale and coughing filly with a feather as his cutie mark. Twilight took one look and shook her head. He had little body mass and would pass quickly. His parents were frantically looking for a doctor who was available but to no avail. Twilight went back to her book as a tear rolled down her cheek. She had tried to stay emotionless so that her work would not be affected but it became harder as more cases, and more ponies she knew, entered the clinic. She set the book aside and reached for the next one when she heard a voice from behind her
“Excuse me…miss? Could you please help us….none of the doctors are available….our son….he’s….” the mare’s voice trailed off into a suppressed sob as she tried to keep her eyes level as Twilight turned around. It was the parents of the filly, she couldn’t quite remember the young one’s name. Twilight looked sympathetically at her and then looked at her son who was in a sling around her neck. She tried her hardest to keep the tears back but they welled at the edges of her eyes as she calmly explained to them,
“I’m sorry. No cure or effective treatment has been found yet. I am doing my best to try to find one but this disease doesn’t match any that has ever been reco- “ she stopped mid-sentence and looked closer at the filly. Through his sweat drenched coat that parted in places she could make out a marking on his chest that looked like a bruise. It resembled a bed of snakes curling over each other. She moved a little closer ignoring the questioning looks of the parents as they followed her gaze. Just as they looked at their sons chest, it disappeared. The filly proceeded to vomit profusely onto the floor most of the contents being bloody and riddled with Ebola like virus pods. He then fell limp in the sling and his erratic breathing slowed and then stopped. His mother stared for a moment in disbelief and then frantically set him down on the ground. She nuzzled him and performed CPR as best she could. The fillies eyes opened with the force of this, lifeless and dull. Blood seeped out of the edge of his mouth to add to the pool on the floor. Twilight stepped away as his mother became more frantic and began screaming and sobbing. She quickly headed out of the clinic and back to her library. This wasn’t a natural sickness. Someone had created it.
Rainbow Dash arrived at the clinic later that day. She brought in on her back a yellow and pink bundle that shook with fever. Dash’s eyes were grim. She hoped to Celestia that Twi had found a cure by now. This disease continued to claim ponies nonstop no matter what precautions were taken. Dash and Fluttershy had been asked to help bring in ponies from cloud homes and in places that were much more accessible via flying. Fluttershy had cried nonstop, her tears rolling down her cheeks as she sniffled at each new case. She had been brave in the face of adversary before but this had proved too much. She couldn’t stand to see so many helpless ponies knocking on deaths door but she continued to help anyway. Until she became infected herself. Dash noticed it while they were bringing in a blue maned pegasus from his home. She had begun to cough lightly. Then noticing it herself she tried to stifle it. Not but a minute later she fell from the sky. Dash had raced after her with the colt still in hand and grabbed Fluttershy much before she hit the ground. Dash had been ready for it. She knew it would come. By the time she had reached the clinic the colt was dead so she left him on a cot beside some of the other more recent casualties that were heading toward the morgue. She saw a filly among them with blood soaking his coat. It was terribly sad but dash remained tearless.
She set Fluttershy on a bed carefully, her pink mane curling over Dash’s back as it fell to cover the yellow mare’s face. Fluttershy looked up at Dash with scared, timid eyes. A drop hit the floor beneath Dash’s face.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy, Twi’s been working on a cure for the past two days. I’m sure she has something by now.” Fluttershy’s eyes reflected a glimmer of hope as she opened her mouth to speak. She was already weak enough that only one word escaped her mouth.
“Angel” Dash understood and nodded at Fluttershy.
“I’ll personally take care of her and your other animals.” Dash said. Fluttershy’s eyes widened at this a little and she shook her head as best she could. Dash laughed once. “on second thought, I’ll have spike take care of them” She said with a smile. Fluttershy smiled back and then fell to sleep. Rainbow Dash turned to leave and nearly jumped through the ceiling when she came nose to nose with a frantic Twilight.
Rainbow Dash stared at the confusing hoof drawn map that Twilight had found folded inside an ancient book. Twilight had been searching through every book on diseases that she had available to her with no results for a reason, this wasn’t a disease, or at least it wasn’t a disease in the sense of it being naturally formed. Biological warfare had never even been considered in Equestria let alone Ponyville, so no one had been prepared for something of this magnitude ever happening.
Twilight had searched her library through books on dark magic and even darker sciences. She had found something about a strange outbreak millennia ago that had claimed nearly a third of the population of Equestria. But what had caught her attention was the mention of a marking like writhing snakes on victims’ stomachs.
“I can’t make anything of this map Twi.”, said Dash as she cocked her head to look at a different angle.
“That’s because those markings are from before maps were standardized. It’s practically in a different language.” Twilight said whilst scanning the book it came from for clues on deciphering the map. There was a knock at the door and Dash went over and opened it to reveal Rarity who looked as if she had gotten into a fight with a puddle of mud. She was panting slightly and looked around Dash urgently.
“Is Twilight here? There is something desperately important that she needs to hear…you should probably know about this too Dash.” She said looking back at Dash as she pushed past her into the library. “Twilight! Is there any news on the cure?” Rarity asked.
“It is located inside an urn somewhere deep inside a cave….the location of the cave remains a mystery though.” Twilight said without looking up from her book. “What is this urgent news about?”
“There are 33 new victims….and 4 more dead….and one is laying on her deathbed as we speak….not from disease but from a stabbing….” Rarity said as Twilight looked up at her. Rarity had a mixture of grief and unbelief plastered on her face as she fought back tears.
“AppleJack has been stabbed in a looting Twilight”
Blood seeped off the cot and dripped onto the floor creating an ever growing pool of red beneath AppleJack. She was pale and barely conscious when Twilight, Rarity, and Dash arrived. There were no doctors to attend to her so she was holding her own already soaked bandage against the wound on her flank. She looked badly beaten and bruised all over her body and only one eye would open fully. She looked at the trio as they entered quietly and tried her best to give a feeble reassuring smile. Twilight was shocked. She hadn’t realized that looting had even been going on and now here lied one of her greatest friends dying because someone decided they wanted what she had.
“Tw-……Twi-…….donchu……worry…..’bout me.” AppleJack strained just to say this as she grimaced in pain as speaking agitated her wound.
“Of course I’m going to worry!” said Twilight. “I can’t just not care as you lie here on your deathbed! I worry just as much about you as I do about Pinkie and Fluttershy!” Twilight was exasperated and at the end of her rope. She hated situations that she couldn’t control and this one was starting to spin wildly into chaos.
“Ah…….Ah’ll be fine.” She argued with another gut wrenching searing pain shooting through her. She was growing paler and weaker by the moment and presently she seemed to lose consciousness.
“Move aside!” Twilight said as her horn started to glow. She wouldn’t accept this. The room was sparkled with purple light as Twilight concentrated. AppleJack’s arm suddenly went limp and her bandage fell to the floor revealing a two inch wound that went roughly six inches up into her rib cage. The blood now flowed freely with nothing in its way to stop it. Twilight tried not to look to closely at the ghastly wound as she worked with all her might to save her friend. AppleJack’s skin started to glow around the wound and the blood flow slowed and then stopped. Twilight was visibly sweating as she used her magic to repair the severed artery and punctured lung and seal the wound. Just as the skin was brought back together and sealed Twilight collapsed.
Twilight awoke in her bed in the Library slightly confused as to what just happened. She sat up and saw Rarity and Rainbow Dash sitting at a table studying the map a few feet away. Dash noticed her first and looked up from her studying.
“Ok Twi my brain is lying in pieces around this room. Please find out what the buck this map says!” Dash said in a tired and Fuck-This-Shit tone. She had bags under her eyes which made Twilight wonder how long she had been out.
“3 days” said Dash seeing Twilights confused and worried look. “We got to the point that we needed to find this cure whether you were able to help or not.” Rarity had her muzzle almost on the map in a trance and she didn’t look any better than Dash.
“My eyes hurt like I’ve just stuck my entire needle supply into them” Rarity said in her dramatic way. Glad to see one thing hadn’t changed. Twilight got up and walked over to the map calculating how far they must be behind from her three day absence. As she neared the table she saw something over the balcony that caught her attention. It was a whiteboard scribbled with many different markers. She could only make out the larger print which read: INFECTED: 7,329 DEAD: 1,224. Her pupils dilated and her heart stopped. The disease was completely out of control. Beside it she saw a picture frame that was black. There was a picture of a jubilant smiling Pink pony inside it.
“no….” Twilights eyes were instantaneously wet and starting to over flow with tears. She raced down the stairs to see a small memorial below the picture with all manner of flowers and cards. The frame said in scrawling letters: In Memory of Pinkamena Diane Pie She brought joy and love to everyone around her and she will forever be missed and grieved for.
“We buried her yesterday.” Dash said from the top of the balcony. Twilight turned to see the rainbow maned pegasus floating down to her with a grim expression on her face. Whether she was holding back tears or she had just lost the ability to cry Twilight could not be sure of. “She woke for an hour before she died. She let everyone know that all she ever wanted was the love and laughter of her friends and we’d each given her that so she was content and felt fulfilled as she went.” Rainbow said this as she wrapped a wing around Twilight and drew her close. “She wanted you to keep searching for the cure and not worry about her. She thought that where she was going she could create more laughter and happiness and be content there.” Dash rocked back and forth slightly with Twilight as Twilight lowered her head and welcomed the embrace. She felt hopeless and alone, and she had the entire town’s if all of Equestria’s fate resting on her shoulders. Dash continued the embrace for a moment and then let go and started for the door.
“I need to make my rounds around the town. I’ve been coordinating quarantines and helping with mass graves. I will be back in about two hours.” With this Rainbow Dash flew out of the door. There was a thump from upstairs and Twilight looked to see rarity with her face planted firmly on the table.
“Don’t worry Rarity I am coming to help” Twilight said as she retrieved her book and went back upstairs. On her way she noticed that the words on the board were names. She stopped as one caught her eye. Under “INFECTED” was a name written in yellow.
It read: “AppleJack” =====================================================================================
Twilight spent most of her time in AJs room. She felt a certain level of responsibility for dragging her out of one pit and tossing her into another. Out of the frying pan into the fiery inferno of death one might say. She hadn’t slept sense she woke up yesterday and her mind worked at close to the speed of a lame slug. She had read the book a total of nine times already but nothing had said anything about how to decipher the map.
AJ would occasionally stir in her sleep and cough up blood onto the cot. She still hadn’t recovered her color even though miraculously they had found some good blood to use in a transfusion for her. Twilight absentmindedly watched AJ’s ragged breathing. She wheezed with every inhale and coughed with almost every exhale. She had an estimated two days to live; that is if she didn’t lose any more blood. Twilight examined the red-stained sheets near AJs mouth. Not good. She was losing more and more blood each hour, maybe not as quickly as before but it was still amounting to something. Twilight redoubled her efforts on the book determined to find the location of the cure.
She woke to the sound of retching. Twilight hadn’t realized that she had dozed off and it was now dark outside. She looked up at AJ who was leaned over the edge of the bed vomiting almost pure blood. She suddenly lost balance and fell to the floor with a sickening thud. To Twilights amazement she stood up by herself and turned slowly to get back on the bed. Twilight jumped up to help but as soon as her hooves hit the floor AJ fell as her legs contorted at odd angles and her body began to spasm. Twilight looked on in shock not knowing what to do. AJ continued to seizure for a moment and then she laid still. Twilight’s brain was unable to process what had just happened. She took a step back and almost tripped over the book that she had dropped into the floor. She looked around to find it and run outside with it before she lost all control but stopped at what she saw.
The book had a glow coming from inside the front cover. She opened it and gaped at what she saw printed plainly in blood on the front page: a key to the map with explanations of other markings and locations in English. But just as quickly as it had appeared it started to fade. Twilight looked around for a quill to trace it but could not find one. She did find a sharp medical tool on a table in the corner which would have to make do. Now for ink. She looked around and then slowly realized what the only substance in the room capable of writing was, and AJ was lying in a pool of it. Twilight dipped the quill in AJ’s blood and then quickly traced over the fading lines. She got almost everything as the last line faded. It would have to do. Twilight quickly threw the sharp tool away, grabbed the book, and ran. She didn’t stop running until she was a hundred yards from the clinic. Then she collapsed on the ground and sobbed.
Rainbow Dash entered the room cautiously avoiding the massive pools of blood and liquefied internal organs. AppleJack lay in the corner, her eyes wide open staring at the door. They were lifeless and glazed over with death. Her legs and arms were sprawled spread eagle and her fur was matted and soaked with blood. Her contorted appearance startled Dash and the shock of losing her best friend and biggest competitor truly sank in. She turned around quickly and walked out and slammed the door behind her while breathing deeply to curb her panic. The room had smelled of decay already and Dash didn’t think she could fulfill her duty of retrieving AppleJack’s body. She had been under far too much stress and she couldn’t handle it anymore. She sank to the floor and stared into space with her mouth hanging slightly ajar. The Running of the Leaves came to mind and she started thinking fondly on the memory. They hadn’t exactly been fair and friendly in the race but she still looked upon the time as one of the good ole days.She remembered the damage to townhall that AJ had so desperately tried to win prize money to fix. She remembered how AJ had tried so hard to always give a helping hand, never once thinking about herself….. Another drop hit the floor beneath Dash’s face.
“I’m gonna miss you AJ” Dash said to herself in a shaky voice. “I don’t know if I can go on without you.” She pondered for a moment the option of suicide. She wouldn’t have to suffer this brutal and bloody plague, she wouldn’t have this skull imploding stress thrust upon her, and she could be with one of her closest friends again. Then she thought of Fluttershy, alone and heartbroken. She would never recover.
Dash sank her head down and curled up. She hated her options. She knew what was right and what had to be done. She stood up and walked back into the room.
Twilight stood at the edge of a mass grave sullen and broken. Bodies were being piled into the open ground in rows and columns one right after another. There was one offset grave in the pit. Twilight and Rarity had dug it together. Twilight looked down the road toward Ponyville where she could barely make out the outline of her tree and the town hall. As she watched, a Rainbow Maned pony came trotting toward them with a body draped over her back. Blood leaked out of AJs mouth with every step leaving a trail all the way back to Ponyville unbeknownst to Dash. Twilight almost hurled at the sight of AJ. She was already beginning to decay and her eyes had sunk inward. Dash deposited her load in the grave and only then noticed the blood trail. Her eyes followed it for a while and then she looked back at the pitiful sight that used to be AppleJack. Dash took her forehoof and gently lowered AJ’s eyelids. Then dash rummaged in her saddle bag and produced an orange gem shaped like an apple. She wrapped it in cloth and lowered it onto the orange pony and then went back to rummaging. She then produced a ripped, torn, and bloody dog collar that had a barely visible name on it that read: Winona. She lowered it onto the orange pony and then stepped back from the grave.
Twilight went through her own saddle bag and got a seeded zap apple which she laid on AJ’s body. She then joined Rainbow Dash and looked expectantly at Rarity.
Rarity had makeup stains all the way down her face from the amount of crying she had done and was doing presently. She could not compose herself no matter how hard she tried. She simply sniffled and let out the occasional sob as she sorted through the contents of her bag to get a familiar ten gallon hat that she laid over AJ’s forehead covering part of her face. She then broke all out and let her powerful emotions for her friend flow out of her as she grieved. She ran over and buried her head into Dash who, surprisingly, embraced her and began to tear up herself. Twilight joined in the embrace and let her own emotions get the better of her as all three of them expressed their loss.
They left shortly later leaving the best marker that they could find, a piece of planking from what used to be the sweet apple acres farmhouse. They carved the following into it: AppleJack Forever loved for her Truthfulness, kindness, and stubborn selflessness. Let the strongest and most beautiful zap apple tree grow here as a reminder of an even stronger and more beautiful pony. Never will she be forgotten.
“I want to stop by Pinkie’s grave.” Twilight said suddenly from behind Rarity and Rainbow Dash. “I haven’t yet been able to pay my respects.” She said solemnly without making eye contact. Pinkie had been given about the same service as AppleJack, she was buried with her element and some mementos of her life. Rarity started to lose it again and Dash had to be the one to respond.
“It is on the way back…” Dash said tentatively. She didn’t want to revisit the site. She had just managed to seal that wound up and didn’t want to tear it open again. Twilight noticed her hesitation and spoke again.
“It’s something I’ll need to do alone” she added more for her own benefit than for Dash’s, they’d done enough crying together for one day.
The three mares continued to walk for a while until they came upon a newly made dirt path that veered off to the right and disappeared into some foliage.
“We buried her alongside the path about a half mile back that way.” Said dash nodding toward the path. “I’m heading back to the library to try and sleep for however long I can before I am needed again.” Celestia knows she needed sleep too. Her eyes were terribly bloodshot and had purple bags under them as a result of her three hours of sleep total she had gotten in the past four days.
“I’ll be recovering at my boutique if you need me darling.” said Rarity in as strong a voice as she could muster. She tried to keep her stained face out of site as she said this and she quickened her pace to make it back to her shop. Twilight felt sorry for the pair as they walked off. Rarity was most certainly not cut out for any type of real stress because of her tendency to blow things out of proportion. Dash seemed the better of the two but it was clear she wasn’t the same. Something dark lurked just beneath the surface of Dash’s consciousness, breaking free once in a while to rear its ugly head. Twilight knew Dash was suicidal; she had been down the hall when Dash had broken down and only then did she realize what a position this normally strong and lively mare was in. As they turned to small specks heading back towards the town Twilight turned onto the path and began walking.
Graves littered each side of the path. At first they were single graves that were nicely dug and put together as they would normally be, but as she proceeded she saw more and more mass graves and shallow, hastily made pits to dump bodies into. Finally she came upon some half depleted balloons tied to a marker made of a stone that was painted pink and surrounded with colorful decorations. The stone must’ve been hard to cut because it only read: A friend to everyone who always brought joy to this world. Rest peacefully Pinkie Pie.
Even this simple phrase was enough to elicit what tears Twilight had left as she rummaged in her bag to find what she had brought for her light hearted friend. She withdrew a bundle of wild flowers and a blueberry Cupcake, Pinkie’s favorite. She deposited them on the grave and backed away to view the stone. It was placed under the shade of an ancient willow and it had a five foot radius of party decorations. No doubt it was by Pinkie’s request. Twilight turned to leave only to find her path blocked by a dirty and bloody stallion with an orange and black mane. He had a knife strapped to his inner left forehoof. Even as she turned he was drawing his knife and throwing his arm out in a wild slash.
Twilight reacted quickly turning her head to avoid the blade but she still managed to sustain a cut that spanned the length of her cheek. She then took a step back while grabbing her saddle bag. The Stallion made another advance only to be hit in the face with a laden bag. Twilight’s heart was racing and she felt adrenaline start to race through her veins as she ran past the Stallion back down the path. He quickly recovered and ran after her.
“HELP!” Twilight yelled frantically as she ran as fast as she could away from the looter. She hadn’t had much on her but it seemed that these were quite desperate times. The looter was gaining on her as she dared to glance backwards. She looked forwards and saw the dirt right in front of her face. She was puzzled for a half second before she impacted and realized that she had tripped. She rolled for about twenty feet until she finally came to a rest on lying on her right side. She winced as she tried to get up feeling her rear right ankle giving out under any type of weight. Her ribs felt cracked as well and it hurt to breathe. The stallion slowed as he saw his pray fall and came to stand over her. He placed a hoof on her chest and held her down pressing enough to give her tremendous pain in her ribs.
The looter looked her up and down as if in examination and a slight smirk appeared on his face. Twilights pupils went to the size of dust particles as she realized what he was going to do. Her breathing quickened a bit as she felt another rush of adrenaline pump through her. He took his knife and began to run the tip down her neck and over her body pausing slightly at her pelvis causing twilight to shiver at its cool touch. He then took his knife and placed the point on Twilights temple as he spoke.
“I could kill you right now but I’m sparing you….I wonder how you could ever repay me for that” he said this in a low voice and it was plain what he intended to do. “Do you have any suggestions on how you could repay me?” he asked.
“Only one” Twilight said as she looked up at him weakly.
“And how is that?” he asked in a laughing tone.
“Like this” said Twilight. Her horn glowed brightly and suddenly and the knife left the looters hand. It glowed with the same purple aura as Twilight's horn as it sped quickly toward the Stallion. The looter’s mouth fell open and his eyes went wide as he realized what was happening and he started to say something but was cut off by the knife embedding itself in the center of his head. It then twirled quickly in a circle like a drill relieving his skull of its contents. Gray matter and blood flew everywhere leaving small explosions of red on the surrounding ground and trees as it impacted. The knife suddenly stopped and withdrew itself. It was then flung into the forest as Twilight pulled herself from under the now lifeless stallion. A red pool started to wet the dirt around his head as blood and brains drained from the hole in his head. Twilight turned and vomited at what she had just done. She then pulled herself to her three good feet and hobbled awkwardly home as her ribs were beginning to turn blue and black.
Twilight hobbled into town slowly, wincing at the pain of her dangling ankle with each bumpy step she took. It was very dark outside and she estimated it was close to 1 am. Suddenly she tripped over her own feet and fell face first into the dirt. She turned her head up and yelled in pain.
“HELP!” she yelled and winced as her broken ribs rubbed against her lungs. She couldn’t focus. She couldn’t teleport or heal her ankle. She was completely helpless. Just like everyone else who found themselves trapped in this tragedy. She had no control which made her even more frustrated than ever. She only hoped the map would turn out to lead them to the cure for the disease.
First she had to get back to the library though. Injury or not the world was ending and she might be the only one who could stop it. She waited for a moment to see if anyone had heard her. It became apparent that no one was anywhere near earshot so she was going to have to get back to the library herself. She heaved herself back to her good legs and carefully inched her way towards the towering tree in the center of town.
It took her nearly an hour to reach the front doors and her condition was rapidly deteriorating. She had probably punctured a lung when she had fallen and it was critical that she had medical attention. She head-butted the double doors open, walked three paces in, and fell to the ground unconscious.
Rainbow Dash had visited Fluttershy as soon as she was back in town. Her yellow friend hadn’t improved and wasn’t conscious often anymore. Her fur was beginning to lose its luster and her hair was matted with sweat and was torn in places. Rainbow Dash had arrived in the middle of one of her seizures that had become the norm. Two doctors tried their best to keep her from hurting herself, but she always ended up with more bruises, cuts, and scrapes. Dash could barely watch as doctors tried to keep the yellow pony from falling off her bed as her body spasmed. They were unsuccessful and there was a very sudden, very sickening, thud as she fell to the floor. It sounded as if she had sustained a broken wing and possibly dislocated something. She kept flailing on the floor while doctors crowded around and tried to help. As soon as she was out of her seizure the doctors reattached her I.V. tube and administered what care they could to her bruises and broken bones. Her body was even more fragile now that it was riddled with sickness and setting bones often caused worse breaks so most of the time all they could do was put the bone in a splint and hope for the best.
Dash was shocked from the sight of her friend but she was so desensitized that she didn’t leave. She simply stood there until the doctors had finished their work and left. It was then that she approached her bed and looked at the pitiful bundle lying on the bed. She had lost weight and was starting to look emaciated. The only way she was able to get nourishment was through her I.V. which left her looking as scrawny as she did. At this point the few doctors that were left had found some medicines that would help with symptoms of victims. The death rate was slowing, but still not stopping, on its exponential growth. Hopefully Fluttershy would not be the next addition to that number.
Fluttershy woke long enough to see a rainbow colored mane disappear through the door and then she fell back into the murkiness of unconsciousness from total exhaustion.
Dash left the clinic and headed to Fluttershy’s house to make sure that spike was indeed doing his job.
Dash woke with a start. Another nightmare from what she had found in the house she supposed. She had buried the cold body of a baby dragon beside the structure along with the rest of the animals which had been found inside the putrid smelling cottage. She had ordered hazmat to come to the house and bleach everything that wasn’t completely covered in vomit and blood and burn the rest. She left with the same emotionless look that she had worn for days. She had returned to the library to sleep so that she could be easily reached in case of an emergency. Suddenly a thump came from downstairs.
Rainbow dash jumped out of bed and flew over to try to find the cause of the sound. She found Twilight lying in a heap with a twisted ankle. She suddenly coughed and produced a sizeable bloodstain on the carpet beneath her from the act. Dash flew down immediately to her aid picking her up and trying not to hurt her anymore as she brought her to the infirmary. She had become unconscious so Dash had to fly slowly to keep her balanced over her back. As Dash flew the front door open Twilight coughed up more blood onto Dash’s shoulder. She ignored the wet oozing feeling and the warm scent as she raced to find a doctor on night duty.
She flung open door after door waking some of the sleeping patients and causing cries of disapproval and question. Finally she found a doctor taking the pulse of a light blue pony with red hair and glazed over eyes.
“Doctor! I have a patient who needs help NOW!” Dash yelled in a commanding tone at the doctor. The stallion took a slight step back in surprise as Dash shoved the dead pony off the bed and carefully laid Twilight in its place. The pony’s head turned sideways when it hit the floor and started to spill blood into a pool near dash’s hooves. The blood was speckled with virus pods and was runny like soapy water. Dash angrily bucked the carcass out the door of the room where it hit a wall and fell back to the floor where it started to create another pool.
The doctor’s mouth dropped for a moment at the action but he quickly forgot about it as Twilight coughed yet again and shot blood flying into the air. It splattered on Dash’s face and on the Doctors coat as it flew and covered a small area around them. The doctor quickly went to her assistance, clearing her throat of any debris as he assessed the damage. He ran over to a box on the side of the room, hit a button, and yelled into the speaker for assistance. He went back to Twilight and looked at Dash.
“You’re going to have to help me until a nurse arrives.” He said with a very serious look and tone. Dash nodded in response too out of it to even speak. The Doctor quickly gave her instructions on helping him prep Twilight for immediate surgery. Her fur was shaved around the rib that had punctured her lung, the area was sterilized, and a local anesthetic was applied. The Doctor made a vertical incision on her chest and had Dash hold the cut open as he looked inside. He found the offending rib, Pulled it into place, patched the lung, stitched an artery back together, and then sewed the incision back, all with in fifteen minutes. The entire time Dash had a front row seat to watch as her friend’s living organs went on display.
“Thank you. She is no longer in critical condition although she needs to be held here at least until morning. You may leave now as the nurse can handle clean up and care for your friend.” Before the doctor even finished the sentence Dash was out flying. She felt nauseated as all the events came back to culminate once more and her stress level exploded into a fiery ball of death and destruction. No one was built to handle this amount of stress, and Dash was no exception. She flew higher and higher until the air was thin enough to make her feel light headed and weak. It was cold at this altitude and the town was a tiny speck on a large green map beneath her. She closed her eyes and folded her wings. She had about four minutes until she had to open her wings and pull up even though she wanted to just leave them closed and implode herself upon the ground. Another casualty among thousands would be all that she was. She knew that she had to keep living to find the cure though and to help her remaining friends. Suicide was not the answer. Yet.
She plummeted toward earth and opened her wings right before she landed on the concrete sidewalk. She glided at an amazing speed through the town and over to a field where she landed. She hadn’t noticed the tears streaking down her face or the mucus dribbling from her nose. She was sobbing, a completely foreign feeling to the loyal Pegasus. She laid in the field and cried for hours and did not stop until the sun was up and making its way over the tops of trees in the forest beside her. She got up and wiped her nose on her hoof. Her eyes were redder than usual and her fur was matted and crusted a little from the amount of tears that had dried on it. Twilight would be waking up soon, and she had the key to the map.
Twilight sat sipping apple juice from a straw as she rested. Her whole existence ached and she wished she had the strength to speed the healing process with her magic. She was useless lying there in the hospital and she knew that she should be out preparing supplies for the journey to this mystical cave the map was supposed to lead to. This was her one and only lead and it drove her completely mad not being able to follow it. She could be out finding the cure to this insidious plague but instead she was stuck lying in a hospital bed drinking apple juice with an I.V. in her arm. Twilight coughed into the apple juice suddenly and she winced and closed her eyes as her ribs exploded with pain. She reopened her eyes slowly as the pain ebbed away and she returned to her juice whilst trying to sink deeper into the pillow on the bed. Something wasn’t right with the juice; it had a metallic taste that spread through her mouth. She looked down into the juice to see drops of dark maroon red dispersing into the drink. She stared at it for a moment and then realized that she had coughed it up. She was puzzled at first because the doctor had stopped her internal bleeding and had assured her that everything was normal. She thought for a minute and then dismissed it as being left over from her ordeal the night before. She watched light start to slowly creep under the door in tendrils as the sun hit the windows in the hall outside her room. She coughed again a bit more violently this time and a bit more blood than last time spewed out of her mouth into her juice and onto her blankets. She was fascinated by this and puzzled again as she tried to determine why she would be coughing up blood. Her head began to ache as she pondered and suddenly a realization came to her.
Without warning the door flew open and Rainbow Dash came in and, seeing that Twilight was awake, began to query as to what to do next.
“You said you had found the key to the map so what’s next Twilight?” Dash asked. Twilight disregarded the question at first as she recovered from her realization.
“You ok Twi?” Dash asked cocking her head and looking closer at Twilight.
“Yes. I’m fine. I just need you to retrieve my papers from the library so that I can begin redrawing the map. We might finally be able to go searching for the last hope of Equestria” Twilight said as she snapped herself out of her trance. She couldn’t let on about anything besides, she could be wrong.
“I’ll go get ‘em. Anything else you need?” asked Dash. She was looking at Twilight suspiciously as if she hadn’t fully bought the ‘I’m fine’ claim.
“Parchment, quills, ink, and Spike so that I can dictate the instructions for keeping up the town and for the journey to him. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to use my magic to write” Twilight said as she tried to sink even deeper into the bed and pillow. She didn’t want Dash to suspect anything.
Dash was silent for a moment before speaking.
“Spike is dead.” She said rather bluntly. She had never been one for beating around the bush.
Twilight was saddened for this and she held grief for the baby dragon, but she was not in any way surprised.
“Find someone to whom I can dictate then. I do not want to hurt myself more by trying to write it magically” Twilight said as she contained her grief. She didn’t have any more time for feelings like this; it was time for her to stop this pandemic and every waking moment must be dedicated to it.
With that Dash left and headed for the library apparently forgetting her suspicions.
Dash headed down the hall towards the entrance of the clinic. Time was critical at this point as she neared the quest that she knew she would do alone. She had seen the blood on Twilight's blanket and had heard her coughing before she walked in. Her weakness was not only from her injury. Twilight was infected.
Twilight worked furiously on the new map, putting all of her remaining strength and brain power into deciphering the key. As she dictated Rainbow Dash noticed her physical appearance deteriorating rapidly. She grew paler and coughed up blood and mucus more often. Her voice was getting weaker and it was obvious that she was over working herself to get the map and instructions done. Dash didn’t say anything because she knew just as well as Twilight that they had to have this map.
“On the path that ultimately leads to the crystal empire there will be a small dirt road halfway down the path on the right. It will lead down to the cavern where you can find the cur-“ Twilight said with visible strain. She was cut off by the infection though, and she fell unconscious in the middle of her work.
Dash ran to the side of her bed ensuring that she was still alive and breathing. Finding her to be in a stable condition she gathered up the papers and stashed them in her saddle bag; then she proceeded to fly out of the building startling many a doctor going down the hall. It was time for her quest to begin.
Dash had never flown so fast in her life. She had dove at greater speeds but this was flying, a much harder task than falling from the sky. She pushed herself to the point of hoarse rasping breaths as she flew along the path away from Ponyville and toward the main road. She figured that at this speed she could make it to the road that led to the Crystal Empire by dusk and, if she flew through the night, she could make it to the cavern before sunrise. She was panicky and shaky as she flew, making it that much harder to keep her balance and altitude. She tried as hard as she could to calm herself but the pictures of her friends kept running through her head nonstop to the point that she was no longer paying attention to flying.
Suddenly, something clipped her left wing. She snapped out of her trance instantly and closed her wings to complete a barrel roll caused by the sudden hit. After regaining her stability she looked back to see what had hit her. She was fairly high from the ground and couldn't quite make out what it was that hit her. It was lying in a lump on the ground and it looked like a sack of potatoes. A bright orange, furry, sack of potatoes.
She banked hard left and dove towards the fallen pony.
It looked as if it had fallen out of the sky whilst flying, being a Pegasus. She rolled the pony over only to find paled over eyes and red-black muck seeping from its mouth.
"HOLY FUCKSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!" Dash screamed as she jumped backwards. The gruesome site was too much for her already annihilated nerves so she turned around and vomited all over the ground. She sank to her knees and continued to wretch for minutes on end as the pony behind her slowly created a radioactive pool of disease beneath it.
When she was finally done, she weakly stood and turned around to take a closer look at the victim. Dash thought that the pony still could've fallen out of the sky while flying, but she wasn't sure. She got closer to try and tell whether the body was still warm and she saw the ponies face again.
Dash froze.
She turned around and wretched again and fell to the ground in a horrible, screeching sob as she realized who the pony was.
Spitfire laid on the ground beside dash in a pool of her own body fluids.
As Dash cried dry tears another thud sounded behind her. She stopped. Slowly, she turned around. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt herself start to wretch again. Another Pegasus, this one unrecognizable from the disease and the impact, was laying slightly behind Spitfire. Dash felt her wretching reflex weakening significantly as she fell to the ground again. She was dehydrated from crying and wretching and was disoriented completely. Another thud came from her right but she was too delusional to tell if it was real or fake, that is, until another thud right beside her and a sharp pain in her left flank confirmed that more bodies were falling. The rate accelerated quickly as Dash struggled to her feat. She looked upward and her eyes widened.
The sky was dark with falling bodies.
Dash felt her adrenaline start to pump as she ran and jumped into flight.
She was beyond panicked and was completely delirious. She flew 3 feet before a falling body managed to knock her down. It took the wind out of her and she was dazed for a moment. she got back up and tried to fly again, only to fall flat on her face as her left wing gave out. She flipped over to inspect her wing as bodies began to pile up around her. It was bent backwards at the joint and a straight part of the wing was no longer straight. It was impossible to fly on it and it would need a splint to heal correctly but the best she could do was to bend the bone back to it's original position as best she could and pass out where she lay.
The air was chilled with morning mist and the sun had barely began to climb above the horizon. It was a beautiful sight really, with all of its radiant hews being thrown wistfully upon the landscape. As the sun rose bit by bit the mist evacuated quickly, receding into whatever hiding place it could find. The dirt path still held some moisture as Dash awoke.
Dash flitted her eyes open for a second only to find herself in total darkness. She was dazed, confused, and her limbs felt like gelatin. She didn't quite remember where she was or what she was doing, all she could process at the current moment was the terrible stench around her.
It smelled like a thousand decaying bodies.
Then Dash remembered.
She opened her eyes again and tried to move but was pinned down by the weight of the bodies around her. The stench grew worse as she disturbed the corpses and she felt an unknown fluid spill onto her legs. She held back wretching and desperately fought against the cadavers around her. She shifted her arms enough to free them and used them to wrest the bodies on her head enough for some light and fresh air to file in through a gap. Encouraged by this, she struggled more and more as the pile shifted and gave way. Finally, with a last heaving push, the pile toppled down in front of her head.
She wriggled out of the pile and fell into the grass eagerly gulping fresh air. She sat looking up at the sky and admiring the large cloud formation of CloudsDale. She remembered when she was a filly and she used to race her friends around the misty buildings and streets, using her secret shortcut if she ever fell behind.
'Those were the days,' she thought.
'If only I could be a filly again, without a care in the world. If only I could wake up from this hellish nightmare.'
"If only" she muttered to herself.
As she gazed at the beautiful city she noticed something strange. Normally, you could see plenty of Pegasi hustling and bustling about the city, but today there were none. Something else she noticed was that the pile of bodies in front of her was positioned directly beneath the edge of the floating city.....and they were all Pegasi.
She rolled on her side to avoid looking at either the city or the pile only to have her wing explode into an inferno of pain. She rolled back on her back and onto her other side as she winced. She looked over at her left wing to try and assess the damage.
It had a swollen knob on it where the bone had broken and it was still dislocated and hanging from her shoulder joint. She knew she couldn't relocate it until she had a splint on the broken bone but sadly, she didn't have a wing splint in her bags. At any other moment, Dash would have panicked. At present moment though, she simply curled up into the fetal position and whispered strange things to herself.
"You were never good enough. You'll never save your friends. You are a failure. You have no use to anyone. You are a despicable waste of space and air. You are too late and now your friends are going to die," she whispered soft enough so that only she could've heard the harsh hisses and clicks of her irate and outraged voice.
Twilight woke with a start. She had been having a terrible dream about a nuclear holocaust that cost her, and everyone she held dear, their lives. She coughed hard and a sizable amount of blood splattered onto her sheets. She stared grimly at the site and wondered how far Dash had gotten. She felt incredibly weak and tired, like she had just recovered from being hit by a truck. The only difference was, she wasn't recovering, she was getting worse.
Twilight began to shiver and her limbs started to ache from cold. She didn't know why it would be so cold in her room but she was certain a doctor would take care of it. She pushed the buzzer attached to her arm to summon an authority and laid back in her bed trying to keep warm. She coughed more and her shivering became more violent as she waited for a doctor. Becoming impatient and wondering why a doctor had yet to appear, she hit the buzzer again. It was then that she noticed how dark it was in the room. She looked towards the door and jumped by what she saw.
There was no door.
The room was just that, a room. No door, no window, no call-box, just her in a bed in the room. This was strange but somehow believable to her. She considered that maybe she had been teleported by a unicorn here and soon a unicorn doctor would teleport in and turn up the damn thermostat. She sat back in her bed impatiently spamming the buzzer when a very offensive smell reached her nose.
She wrinkled her snout in response and sat up in bed to survey the room so that she could find what was causing the offending odor. She looked to the left of her bed toward the more open part of the room and shrieked and fell to the other side. Cautiously and nervously she peeked over the bed to see if it was still there. Finding that it was she scooted into the corner of the room and sat, hugging her knees and whimpering.
Six ponies laid sprawled on the other side of the room, AppleJack, FlutterShy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and one other. Each one laid in filth and fluids that seeped out of each opening of their bodies. In the middle of the ponies lay the sixth, worst looking, pony with glazed eyes and tattered mane.
Twilight stole a glance back at them and confirmed, she was the one laying in the middle of the pile. She heard a strange noise coming from the group of ponies so she slowly turned back around and looked over the bed to see them. As she watched, the flesh on each one of them melted away leaving only skeletal remains which in turn disintegrated into dust.
Twilight sat shaking in her bed. She trembled from both fear and the sickness that was slowly consuming her body. The dream she had frightened her. She couldn't possibly begin to understand what it meant, but she had a hunch that it wasn't good. If the dream's situation came true, then her and all of her friends would die before this ordeal was over. She shook this troubling thought from her head and just then noticed Rarity looking at her with deep concern as she stood beside her bed.
"Are you alright Twilight?" asked Rarity with a very serious tone. It was clear that she wasn't going to stand for an 'I'm fine'. Twilight looked at her calmly but with sorrow in her eyes. Rarity was the last friend she had with her, and if Dash didn't make it back soon than the white boutique owner was certain to fall prey to the malicious disease.
"You shouldn't worry Rarity, I'm just a little shaken from a nightmare I had." explained Twilight. There was no sense in telling her everything about her experience as Rarity wasn't exactly known for keeping her cool.
"You can tell me about it you know." Rarity chimed back whilst she broke eye contact with Twilight. She looked at the bed and then around the room. Spotting a picture on the wall that caught her interest, she trotted over to examine it. "I've realized that in the past I haven't been known for being able to deal with stressful situations," she continued, "but I really want to be here for you in your time of need. It's really the least I can do. I'm just sorry that I've not taken matters more seriously until now." she turned back to Twilight and resumed eye contact and moved back towards her. "I guess you get around to fixing your querks when its the end of the world don't you? heh..." she said with a forced laugh. "Amazing what an apocalypse can do to a pony," she broke eye contact again and looked at the floor with a shameful expression. She was clearly realizing that she may be the only element of harmony left in Ponyville soon, and it was about time she acted more seriously. Twilight listened intently to all of this, and, upon her finishing she looked down at the covers over her lap. A violent cough came from her throat and more blood spewed onto the already poka-dot bed sheets. She contemplated what to say to her friend. Twilight decided that it would be best if she let her know about everything, as her time might be very limited.
"I had a dream about a room without an exit. It looked similar to this one but was incredibly cold and smelled of rotting flesh. I soon realized that the smell was emanating from six bodies in a pile on one side of the room. The bodies consisted of....us....the elements" Twilight said this last part with visible strain and she never made eye contact with Rarity. Rarity stared in dismay at the lavender pony before her and was quiet for a few moments.
"Twilight, just last night....I had a dream myself," admitted Rarity. She stamped her hooves as her nerves got to her and she paused before she continued. She looked down for a moment, and then resumed eye contact with Twilight, but her eyes were now wet. "I was in a lovely valley. It smelled of roses and daisies and all sorts of other wonderous smells." She sat on the floor before she continued visibly shaking from starting her confession. "I was happy, and I began to look around and explore. I saw an oak tree that seemed familiar, and then I realized, it was your library." Twilight perked up at this and listened as intently as she could, but she could feel herself drifting away as her fever returned and she began to feel fatigued. "It was overgrown and looked to be abandoned, and no other buildings surrounded it like they do today. This puzzled me and I figured this must be in the far off future. But then, everything stopped. I could smell nothing at all, nothing moved or flowed with any winds and nothing made any noises. I heard a sound like...like moles burrowing." She paused again and shut her eyes to hold back more tears. "I looked around me....and....there were.....bodies.....welling up from the ground." she said this as quickly as she could, pausing between words as she choked them out. "I screamed but made no noise, I made an effort to run but was held were I stood." Twilight was fading quickly now but couldn't interrupt Rarity as she explained further. "I began to cry and panic as more and more bodies welled up. Piles began to form and I began to smell their putrid scent. Just when I couldn't take anymore....I noticed six bodies in particular that had appeared in front of me.....and the one closest to me......was me." with this Twilight sank into a sickness induced sleep. Rarity cried after she finished, she bawled on the floor and sank to her knees. She had been hoping so strongly that the dream hadn't been sent to her, that it was just a nightmare. After comparison with Twilight's dream, it was clear that she was wrong to hope.
She didn't notice that her friend had fallen to sleep until she had finished sobbing and got up to continue their conversation. Twilight was sweating and her breathing was odd, coming in short, deep bursts. Rarity wasn't sure if she should call a doctor, they were busy enough as it was, but Twilight seemed to be having some trouble. She decided to leave the doctors be and simply sat at the edge of Twilight's bed, monitoring her.
Rarity woke suddenly to a thump. She looked over on the bed only to find that Twilight wasn't there. Her groggy mind was puzzled at first until she saw the writhing blanket on the floor. Twilight was having a violent seizure and had tangled herself up in her blanket. Rarity screamed at the site and ran for a doctor.
When she returned, Twilight had stopped her seizure and lay in a tangled mess breathing heavily on the floor. Her eyes were barely open and blood dripped out of her mouth like drool. The doctor lifted her back into the bed and began to untangle her to assess if she had sustained any injuries. As he cut the blanket off, blood started to squirt out of the spot where Twilight had been stabbed. Rarity fainted as the doctor called for assistance.
Rarity was only out for a moment and when she awoke three doctors were working furiously on Twilight. Rarity dragged herself to her feet as the doctors finished restitching the wound and cleaning up the blood. They got her a new blanket and reinserted her I.V. Rarity watched her friend intently as she was almost sick with worry. She felt herself starting to cry but stopped her tears in their tracks. She had to keep her composure. She was the last element uninfected and she had to stand tall and strong in the face of this adversary.
She vowed to herself that she would not sleep in order to keep watch on Twilight. In the morning, if circumstances permitted, she would check on FlutterShy to make sure she was still holding on.
She sat motionless in the dark room, the only light that found it's way in came from the stars in the windows in the hallway. The light provided just enough visibility for Rarity to see what appeared to be writhing snakes appear on Twilight's chest.
It was a moonless night, and the beautiful constellations played and danced together in the sky.
Rainbow Dash lay quiet and sullen on the side of the dirt path. She was mentally and physically exhausted. There was no way she could make it to the cure and get it back to Ponyville before...
She turned her head. She couldn't bear the thought. All she could hope was that Fluttershy was still alive and Twilight hadn't gotten any worse. Shaking her feelings of self loathing was a necessity, she couldn't continue on with them weighing her down. Dash and her friends had done the impossible before, and she was determined they could do it again.
Dash stood up slowly, her limbs numb from lying down. She glanced back up at Cloudsdale, and noticed the rainbows had subsided into faint mists.
"They must be doing just as bad as Ponyville...." she said to herself. Judging by the pile of discarded bodies, about half the city was already dead. Dash's sadness deepened, and she felt herself falling back into her pit of despair. She shook her head hard and turned around. She began to walk away and stopped. Something about the pile of bodies had caught her eye.
Spinning to face the bodies she saw it. One of the pegasi had a splint on their left wing, no doubt from a seizure injury. The body was fairly decayed and had started to crust around the straps. If she was going to have any chance of getting the cure she needed it.
Slowly and gingerly, she unbuckled the device from its previous owner, but the straps stayed pasted to the rotting wing. Dash closed her eyes and thought of her remaining friends back home as she peeled the straps away from the skin. She wrestled the splint from the rest of the wing and opened her eyes.
She immediately dropped it and wretched. Skin and rotting flesh had clung to the straps and splint, with virus pockets making up most of the little blood left to flow from the wing.
Dash took some heavy breaths, turned around and grabbed the splint and started rubbing it vigorously in the dirt. The skin and flesh started to peel away coming off in chunks and leaving bits of feathers and fur on the ground. Once it was mostly clean, she ran away from the pile of bodies, clinging to the splint with her good wing.
Once Dash had put some space between herself and the dead she stopped and threw the splint to the side of the road. As she sat down she took a bottle of apple cider from her bag and downed it. It would be one of the last times she tasted Sweet Apple Acre's cider, as not many bottles were left. She discarded the bottle and grabbed the splint and began to apply it to her wing. Once she had it secured she tested to make sure her wing would not bend at the break, and she prepared herself for the intense pain of relocating it.
She screamed as she shoved her wing back into its socket, and laid down to let the pain subside. From her view on the ground she saw the discarded bottle, the Sweet Apple Acre's brand on it, and picked it back up and stowed it away. She couldn't bear to leave a piece of AJ behind.
Dash briskly trotted down the path towards the Crystal Empire.
